A quick look at 'what is depression versus sadness?’ for teens

If you are a teen who has experienced a time of sadness or struggled with feeling “normal”, you may be wondering if you are just sad or if it might be a sign of depression.

Let’s look at the difference between sadness and depression.

Many people struggle to understand the difference because we often use the word ‘depression’ synonymously with sadness. ‘Sadness’ is characterized as a human emotion that is in response to a specific situation or event. Sadness can be a way that we notice problems and can work through them, or motivate us to make changes in our life. Sadness can show up in many ways. It can appear in the body, for example, if you feel that pit in your tummy, or head aches, or even feeling a little dizzy. We can also show sadness with crying, shaking, and trembling. Sometimes we feel so sick to our stomach that we don’t want to engage in conversations with friends, hanging out with our loved ones, or even going to school or work.

You are human, it is okay to feel sad! Everyone experiences sadness, especially after an upsetting thing that has occurred in our life, or during stressful situations. There are many ways that we show sadness, but these are common ways that we show it.

Emotions are important to think about as well.

Did you know we have over 35,000 emotions?  The ‘feeling wheel’ or ‘emotions wheel’ in the image below shows what emotions come up when a person is sad. If you look at the light blue color on the feeling wheel (the image below), you can also see words such as tired, bored, depressed, ashamed, guilty, and lonely. Then, you can see as they turn into more specific descriptive words, such as feeling remorseful or isolated.

If you look at sadness, it is an umbrella term, meaning that there are more parts to sadness. Sadness can often be viewed as being more short-term, compared to depression. Sadness typically comes and goes, often in waves. We might feel sad in the morning, then feel happy later on. Maybe even excited because we just made plans to go somewhere fun! Or excited to do watch that new movie that came out. An example of severe sadness is ‘depression’. Depression can typically be seen as lasting two weeks or longer.

 ‘Depression’ is a mental health disorder that looks like hopelessness, sadness, and losing interest in activities that you typically found enjoyable in the past. You might typically hear people often throw around the word ‘depressed’ casually. You might hear your friends talk about how they are “so depressed”, even though they may just be feeling sad. It is important to be able to know the difference of sadness and depression. Depression lasts for a significant amount of time. It will impact your daily life, and there are not as many ups and downs with depression as there is with sadness. 

For example, if depression symptoms are present in your life, you might sleep longer hours, lack motivation, trouble focusing at school, struggling to feel joy or happiness, self-harm, isolation, not wanting to talk to friends, and possibly feel suicidal thoughts. It is important to seek professional medical support if you believe you are suffering from depression. Depression requires a professional to be able to diagnose and treat it.

Please remember that there is always hope, even when you feel like there is nothing to look forward to. Depression is serious and requires support. You can get through this! Through counselling supports we can find tools to learn to best support you through both depression and sadness. You can see what works best for you, as you are the expert in your life. 

 If you are looking for support, I offer in person and virtual counselling in Langley and would be honoured to walk alongside you at this time in your life. You can reach out to book a free 15-minute phone consultation with me by clicking here.